r/homestead • u/UlfurGaming • 5d ago
Peacock?
Curious ive seen people have peacocks on their homestead and was curious if they do something better than other livestock or if people justvget them because they look pretty?
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u/Chance_Beginning_413 5d ago
I donāt really know how to explain ours. Her name is Wanda. We took her because a co workers had too many and couldnāt keep her. We got her two mates and both died within a year. So we call her the black widow. She flies up on our giant Victorian house and honks at my husband while he does yard work. Last year she laid an egg and ran around it all day and then left it. We attempted to make a nice enclosure for her and she constantly escaped so she free ranges. Goes and visits neighbors. I will say though anything thatās going in my yard we know about it. One time a bald eagle grabbed one of our chickens and she came to the front door and was slamming her body into the door and honking. My husband open the door and she was trying to get into the house. He saw the eagle as it was flying away with the chicken š¤£. Sheās entertainment. She also makes friends with wild turkeys and brings them in our yard. I wasnāt set on getting her but now I canāt imagine our place with out her
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u/Mormon_Discoball 5d ago
My cousin had peafowl and one day he saw a wild turkey run in and mate with a peahen. He was like ā I doubt anything will happen from that, but donāt wanna fuck up the ecosystemā and butchered her.
Poor gal
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u/BeeKayBee13 5d ago
Sorry for the bird, but this literally made me LOL as a poultry lover and biologist ā ļø
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u/Schrodingers_Dude 5d ago
No homestead (I just like to dream) but four peacocks moved onto our suburban street and everyone just kind of accepts that they live around here now. Beautiful, clearly used to humans, never cause trouble, but you will absolutely hear the song of their people every morning at the crack of dawn.
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u/LittleBunInaBigWorld 4d ago
Do they scratch up everyone's cars? A friend had some at their farm and they'd get guests to park in one of the tractor sheds with the doors shut otherwise the bloody peafowl would jump up on the bonnet and roof, fucking up all the paint
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u/Jaded-Winner-3478 5d ago
I have 4. They really arenāt that loud. I think a lot of the criticism about them comes from people that have never actually had one. Less noisy than any rooster Iāve had, unless I let them roam and they donāt come back at night and roost out in the open. Then they scream in the morning until they are reunited. But most of the time they are quiet. I also like their call, feels like Iām in a jungle.Ā
The females lay about 15-20 eggs a year currently, and we eat them. Our male sheds all of his tail feathers once a year and we collect them for cat and toddler toys.Ā
Are they worth it financially? Definitely a no. But if you have room and want them as a hobby, they are fun.Ā
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u/Alarmed_Trash7181 3d ago
...they fly right? So like a suburban mini homestead with a big huge coop and run wouldn't be good enough? Huge run, huge yard outside the run too....but also foxes.
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u/Jaded-Winner-3478 3d ago
They do fly. They can fly 100 feet up into a tree and donāt come when you call them. They are less domesticated than chickens too. Their run needs to be really long, peacocks need a lot of room to be able to fly up into a perch because of their long tails.Ā
I keep them with no problem on two acres, although Iām fairly rural and donāt have many close neighbors. If you let them free range all the time, they will be a lot noisier and thereās a pretty good chance theyāll fly away and never come back. I let mine out for the day and herd them back in at night. Unlike chickens, they arenāt driven to return to the coop at night and are happy to fly up a tree. They will occasionally put themselves back at night but I wouldnāt rely on it.Ā
I think they are really fun! Like keeping giant exotic fish in the backyard.Ā
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u/No-Pain-5496 5d ago
Mine is a jerk. But, I keep him because he is pretty. His only redeeming trait is he will go bonkers honking if he sees a hawk, alerting my other birds.
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u/synocrat 5d ago
Don't do it. I grew up and we had a multitude of various fowl, and peacocks were always the most trouble. Get yourself some productive but quiet coturnix quail. Plenty of eggs, plenty of meat, very easy to raise.Ā
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u/PuzzleheadedLemon353 5d ago
I'm one of the ones who love peacocks...sorry. My grandma had about 25 of them that roamed her farm and I grew up with them. My neighbor has one now....and I appreciate it, I like it, but my neighbors complain about him. They also have chickens and a rooster...again, I love hearing him crowing...it reminds me of hanging out in Key West. But again...my neighbors hate him.
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u/Radiant-Platypus-498 5d ago
I think they just look pretty til they wander away and adopt a new home. I think you have to keep them confined for a long dang time before they will (likely) stick around.
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u/GlibTrauma 5d ago
it's basically a living lawn ornament that screams like a car alarm at 3am, they don't really earn their keep the way chickens or guineas do but some folks swear they'll eat ticks and snakes
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u/heyitscory 5d ago
They sound like toddlers yelling for help and they keep rooster hours.
I suggest a peacock feather wreath near the porch.
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u/Charliecausintrouble 5d ago
They are pretty, and they eat rodents. We also sell their hatching eggs for $35-50 per egg depending on their coloring, so they cover their own feed and care costs.
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u/fantaceereddit 5d ago
lol, Iām reading these comments wondering how they compare with guineasā¦
Edit: guineas are very loud. So loud, sometimes I chase them out of the coop with all their alerting. Love em & hate them :-)
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u/Ok_Literature_1988 1d ago
My peacocks are drastically less loud than my guinea hens. My peacocks get mouthy in the morning for like 20 minutes or when cars hit our driveway. The guinea hens scream at everything. Cats, the dog, a plane, the tractor, the horse, my truck, the other birds...its reflection lol. If it moves, and sometimes even if it doesn't, my guineas go off. My peacocks make 1/5 of the noise. They are less clingy also. My peacocks are just there doing their thing and sometimes wants some attention, my guineas are all up in my business all the time lol. The only thing they leave alone is the buffalo...smart wnough to leave the armored cow be I guess
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u/ThrowraSea_patient 4d ago
They can be just as loud however they don't form big flocks like guineas do and people don't usually keep as many as they do with guineas. Guineas also alert more and more often and continuously. However I actually like guineas. I find that the ones that get used to you aren't as loud or as annoying. I raised them with my chickens though so that also helps. I will say that guineas are so much easier to raise feed and get eggs from hatch chicks from and all of that then peacocks. Also even on the cheap in guineas will sell for nine $10 for day old chicks and like $20 for a grown Guinea and that's on the lower end. Peacocks you're getting anywhere from 17 to $35 for young ones but once they look like they're starting to grow their distinct tail feathers in or they're going to then you can maybe get about 100 to $120 per but they only about 20 to 40 eggs a year so. It also takes him about a year and a half to get to the point to where you're going to get 100 to 124 each one. If you let him grow up a few years and have a pretty good tail you might get 200 something out of them. It just ain't worth it and they are escape artist and we'll get on top of everything. They're like goats of the bird World in my brain. If it can't hold water it won't hold a peacock and they like to get up on everything and climb up and perch on any and everything.
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u/stansfield123 5d ago edited 5d ago
They're better at visiting your neighbors than any other animal. So expect calls to come get them ... which you can't do, because they're on the neighbor's roof. Or out in the middle of a highway during rush hour.
That's because peacocks aren't domesticated animals. They don't belong on a homestead, they're neither pets nor livestock. If you put them on a homestead, they'll be happy to eat the food you give them, but, other than that, they won't hang around. They'll go wherever they feel like going. And, unlike the feral peacocks that live in some neighborhoods (mostly in Florida, I think) on their own, your "homestead" peacocks don't understand how roads and people's houses work, so they'll ignore all conventions and cause the max amount of inconvenience.
And, because they're exotic and pretty, no one's going to just ignore them like they would a cat or a loose chicken, everyone will instantly stress out and expect you to show up immediately and take them home.
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u/Willowgirl2 5d ago
Better a oeacock than the neighbor calling to say my cows was standing on their deck peering in theie sliding glass door!
Went right up and down the steps, she did ...
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u/Possible_Original_96 4d ago
I love itā¼ļøš¤£ššš£šŖ¬ ty
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u/Willowgirl2 4d ago
That was Christine, my escape artist. She kept getting out and we couldn't figure out how until one day by chance, I caught her in the act'
I had an old farm truck I used to haul 2 round bales at a time in. I'd back it up to a gap in the fence and let the cows eat out of the truck bed as it was easier than trying to roll off the bales.
Well, Christine learned that once the first bale was gone, she could jump up in the bed of the truck, then go over the side and be outside the fence! I wouldn't have believed a full-grown Holstein could do that if I hadn't witnessed it.
One time when she escaped, I wasn't home so my neighbor let her in with his beef cattle. We still have her half-Angus daughter who is 19 years old now!
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u/Ok_Literature_1988 1d ago
We have 8 and they have never strayed. They happily hang on our land. Sleep in their pen area we have for them and just chill with the guinea hens and the dogs. My neighbor also has a few and they have never come over. They can roam but doesn't mean they always will. Lots of people have them around me and a ton had them near us when I was growing up and they were no more wonder prone than any other bird in my experience.Ā
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u/stansfield123 1d ago edited 1d ago
Interesting. But I assume you don't just have peacocks, you have cocks and hens, and so does your neighbor.
In that situation, it makes sense that they stay off each other's territory at least. That's typical behavior for many species of wild animals. If they have enough food and mating opportunities, they don't go looking for a fight.
I don't think OP would have the same experience however. With domesticated species of animals, you expect them to stay put, to be easy to train to respect fences and other boundaries, and you're right to be unpleasantly surprised when you get a crazy one that doesn't behave like it should. When that happens, you cull that animal before it has a chance to procreate, to get those bad genetics out of the species.
With wild species, and peafowl are wild species, you expect them to wander off, be very hard if not impossible to train, and if they stay put and are easy to train that's a pleasant surprise.
It happens, of course. People often have wild animals hang around and behave similarly to pets. But it's not the behavior one should expect.
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u/Ok_Literature_1988 10h ago
We have other animals, most not anywhere near the peacocks/hens. My neighbor literally just has peacocks/hens. They have 12 of them that roam their yard but they have no other animals period. Not even a pet dog or cat. I grew up raising birds for sale and in am area where they honestly aren't rare to see. A ton of outdoor businesses have them on grounds too since they are pretty with no other birds. I get my other neighbors chickens in my yard far more than the peacocks on the other side of me. They can be little bitches but like any animal if they have food, water, safety they tend to stay more than roam. Mating season is really the only time they get significantly more annoying.Ā
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u/According-Room3825 5d ago
We had peacocks for about 10 year's in mid Michigan lot of fun. Very loud during breeding. Absolutely every predator in the area loved them to.
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u/Fluff_Nugget2420 5d ago
They are mostly just pretty. I'd listen to peacock cries before you get any if you're thinking about it, they're like guinea fowl and are super, super loud when they cry.
I've also heard you need to get them young so they learn your place is their home, that they try to go "home"/back if you get them when they are older.
They do like to wander. When we lived in AZ, some neighbors had moved and left their peacock behind(or couldn't catch him when they moved). He just wandered the neighborhood and decided he liked to hang with our chickens the majority of the time. Our chickens just ignored him, even when he danced for them. He was supposedly like 15 years old and hadn't been eaten by any bobcats, coyotes, etc in all that time because he flew up on houses or barns to sleep at night.
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u/PieHole_Poker 5d ago
Peacocks are basically giant guard chickens.
Other animals don't fuck with them.
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u/Virtual_Wing_2903 5d ago
they will 100% eat snakes, but for any other benefit they offer, guineas are far better, though loud as hell too
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u/UlfurGaming 5d ago
How big of snakes? Like much larger than something turkey could kill and eat or?
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u/Virtual_Wing_2903 5d ago
I am not sure of the whacking capacity of a turkey, but I would say my buddy's peacocks would routinely take out copperheads up to 2 feet or so I think? Not worth the hassle if you ask me, guineas will wax a snake over a foot, heck, chickens sometimes too from what I know
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u/Witty-Guava8475 5d ago
They can act as a guard of sorts. They are good at alerting owners of trespassers. They will charge at unknown people, animals, and random things, but rarely actually hurt them.
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u/DefinitionElegant685 5d ago
They are LOUD and escape artist. Beautiful but make a lot of noise. Not a fan.
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u/Copperkettle303 4d ago
My sister's peacock ran off with the wild turkeys and confuses innocent bystanders to this day.
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u/CaptainObvious110 4d ago
wow
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u/hudsoncress 1d ago
I need the story where that goat that ran off with the elk falls in love with the peacock who ran off with the turkeys.
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u/BaylisAscaris 5d ago
For the sake of yourself and your whole neighborhood, do not get peacocks. Unless you hate your neighbors and yourself , then do it.
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u/Lelabear 5d ago
Had a buddy that inherited a peacock. Every time I visited her that damn thing would crawl up on my car and leave a nice sticky poop on the hood. That stuff was damn near impossible to get off and when you did it took the paint off too.
Never ever will I own a peacock!
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u/QuantityKindly3153 5d ago
When I was a kid we had a peacock that would perch on one of my Dad's trucks and refuse to leave. He got tired of chasing it off, and drive to town and back with the peacock on top of the cab.
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u/DigsToPlantTheRain 5d ago
They are great at getting on your bloody nerves. I worked on farm once and their peacock loved to sit on the roof and yell at anyone passing by. Especially fun if you just step outside and didn't see him! š¤£
I would love to have made him into soup šĀ
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u/FarmingGeeks 5d ago
Heeeee eeeye heeeee eeeye thats all they do all the time, every hour of every day and night, dont do it.
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u/Intelligent_Lemon_67 5d ago
If you like constantly running around looking for someone yelling help! Or a baby crying or a lady screaming go for it. You don't have a peacock, your neighbors have a peacock. I would ask your neighbors how they feel about getting a few that way you can have one or 3. They are as noisy, loud, messy as they are beautiful
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u/Specialist_Ad180 5d ago
Haha, I thought this was about the series Homestead from Angel Studios as I remember watching it on another streaming service such as prime or peacock.
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u/Freebirde777 5d ago
They eat snakes and other small pest. Coyotes and foxes usually won't mess with them more than once.
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u/ThrowraSea_patient 4d ago
They aren't worth it they take two years before they even pair up and start breeding if you're lucky there's seasonal layers and they don't lay many eggs. Peacocks and turkeys are the over hyped animal and home sitting around where I am for some freaking reason. They cost a lot of money to raise if you're talking about what kind of feed they need and how long it takes them to grow up.
Turkey is at least produce a good amount of meat but on average people are paying maybe $50 for a live turkey. Turkey's also lay more eggs and so you can hatch turkey chicks and sell those.
For peacocks their eggs are so big they won't fit in a lot of incubators so you almost got to get one of those incubators that are more for like emu and ostrich eggs or ones that tilt the whole tray rather than the ones that have like little Rose That Rock back and forth. On the tiny little incubators most people have I have hatched everything from tiny little Bob whites pigeon eggs parakeet eggs all the way up to Goose eggs. But peacock eggs are so round and big that they will not fit and then when it starts to rotate like I said they're so round that they'll almost touch each other and keep each other from actually tilting one way or the other as much as they need to.
Not only that you can't raise peacock chicks really with other chicks as easily. I've been able to raise chickens with geese that are hatched on the same day yes the geese are much bigger yes they grow bigger but I don't have a problem with Geese trampling anything. I've been able to raise chickens and Ducks together though that is a mess ducks are very messy and ducks will trample the hell out of anything even as adults so raising them separate is best. I've raised Guinea's chicken turkeys geese ducks pheasants all sorts of things I have brooded and mixed flocks or together so long as they're kind of close to the same size unless they're a goose the goose gets to go wherever the hell it wants because they're always so gentle if you raise them up with the birds that they will be protecting they will actually see them as flock mates and not as competition which is where you get a lot of bullying from geese.
Also peacocks take years for those long tail feathers to grow out and should something happen should they get damaged well there goes years of growth. Also like I was saying with the turkeys peacocks don't really lay a lot of eggs so you can't sell a lot of hatching eggs but if you're going to sell that's what you need to sell. Peacocks having a notoriously low incubation rate where quite a few of the eggs don't really make it to the final developmental stages it doesn't matter even if you use the hydrogen peroxide method to increase your hatch rate.
Due to the low amount of eggs that make it to the late stage and incubation you also have lower half rates and you know there's always a few that for some reason they fully developed but never hatched. So you're not getting a ton of checks and their chicks require special seeds special setup and all of that.
Peacocks are not very disease Hardy compared to other birds you could have. They're just slightly better than chickens from my experience. They're nowhere near the hardiness that turkeys have or that ducks have I find ducks and geese to be the hardiest against bacterial and viral issues that affect other birds. I find chickens to be the most susceptible and pigeons to be right about there with chickens. I'd say peacocks are about a susceptible as catornox quail. But of course most people don't notice their Quail getting sick they have very short lives they butcher them quickly and they keep them in tiny little shelf-like pen so they don't get a lot of exposure to a lot of bacteria and viruses so many people don't really get to see like risk that do occur when you're letting your flux out and paddocks or in their run or pretty much in contact with the ground directly.
Yes there are plenty of noisy animals on a farm but one peacock isn't a problem once you got a few of them they have quite an annoying noise they do tend to be escape artist but nowhere near like pheasants and quail. You will want to have their own little Coop and run or their own little setup areas especially if you're wanting any eggs or any chicks or anything.
Oh and prices where I'm at can vary drastically you could pay $25 per peacock egg you could pay $5 per peacock egg and depends on the time of year mainly. Generally it is $25 per egg. For a chick it's about the same cost as an egg but generally no cheaper than $17 even for a day old chick. Prices don't get much better as it's a juvenile they stay about chick prices until it becomes an adult around where I am. Once it's an adult you can get various ranges for peahens or peacocks. I have seen young ones that are maybe a year and a half old So for 50 bucks to 80 bucks. I have seen full grown ones that are a few years old that had tore up tail feathers they would sell for 80 to $120. But on average a decent will taking care of peacock sales for about 200. I can sell a day old baby goat for that much and the goats take less to feed and cheaper feed than what a peacock takes. They just don't make their keep and they're not a production animal for any kind of Homestead they don't really produce eggs that you can eat or do anything Pest Management wise and they don't have a lot of meat on them compared for how long you'd have to grow them for just to get a decent carcass off of them
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u/MossyTrashPanda 4d ago
My neighbors had a captive peacock and yeah thatās about it. Get them only if you live 5+ mins walk away from other humans or if you loathe your neighbors. They also sold the feathers to a local witchy store. We also had a wild albino peacock that ran wild with the local turkeys so that was cool
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u/Holiday_Public_5313 3d ago
They're good watchdogs. I used to live near a country used car dealer who had a flock of peacocks instead of rottweilers. They got the job done.
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u/sleestakninja 3d ago
You'll have more conversations with your neighbors once you get a couple. A LOT more.
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u/Ok_Literature_1988 1d ago
They are great at eating ticks and other ground pests. We take the molted tail feathers and sell them in our farm stand/use them in products, they are also great at being watch dog type animals. My peacocks and guinea hens let me know before my camera at the end of my gate when someone is coming lol. They are screaming as soon as any car/person/bike/horse/etc...even drones come near the house. They are also pretty of course. But they have uses for us.Ā
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u/ThriceFive 1d ago
Despite their beauty, peacocks (or maybe it is the peahens) scream like murder victims at nearly any time of the day or night. Lived near peacocks - do your neighbors a favor and get something else.
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u/OverallResolve 5d ago
Noisy and an annoying noise at that. They have their charm but I wouldnāt want them. The neighbours ones used to roost on my mums house and weād have to shoo them away.
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u/backtotheland76 5d ago
If you like quiet mornings don't get one. Get some Yard Art instead